The name Chomelia Linnaeus (1758) was applied to these plants for many years; however, the later homonym Chomelia Jacquin (1760), which applies to a wholly neotropical genus, is now conserved against the Linnaean name, so the Old World plants formerly known under Chomelia are now correctly known under Tarenna.

Most of the characters that distinguish species of Tarenna are found in the corollas and calyx limb, thus specimens of Tarenna are often difficult to identify when they only have fruit from which the calyx limb has fallen. The genus was not well known in China until the work of W. C. Chen (Acta Phytotax. Sin. 22: 139-174. 1984). Tarenna apparently has secondary pollen presentation. W. C. Chen (in FRPS 71(1): 370. 1999) described the stipules as caducous, but the specimens seen all have persistent or tardily deciduous stipules. The key here closely follows that of W. C. Chen in FRPS (loc. cit. 1999: 370-372), with its emphasis on pubescence characters and number of ovules per locule, for reference. Chen (loc. cit. 1999: 370-384) considered the form (i.e., raised vs. flat vs. impressed) of the leaf midrib adaxially to be consistent within a species, but specimens studied show variation within species and overlapping among most species.